Restrictions Land Confiscation on Use and Access Introduction 79 Land-Buffer Zone The Buffer Zone covers 17 percent of Gaza’s total area (62,616 m2) and, most significantly, 35 percent of its agricultural land.282 Diakonia estimates that 113,000 people or 7.5 percent of the population have been impacted by the imposition of the Buffer Zone.283 The vast majority of the inhabitants of these areas are farmers who cannot reach their lands and consequently have planted harvests that do not require daily care, especially considering the total absence of any functioning water wells since Israel destroyed them. In excess, the military prevents farmers growing any plants or trees that could reach more than 80cm with the pretense that such growth could be used as a natural hide-out. The land within the Buffer Zone contributes about 30 percent284 of the total agricultural harvests produced in the Gaza Strip and about 10 percent of the exported agricultural goods. More than 16 percent of the farmers in the Gaza Strip are dependent on these lands.285 Israeli military forces violations committed in the Buffer Zone have led to many casualties among civilians as well as damage to their properties. Violations have included damage to agricultural lands, demolition of houses and the destruction of wells, in addition to preventing farmers from working in their own lands by restricting their freedom of movement and secure passage. Faysal Odeh - Khuza’a, Khan-Yunis286 On 5 January 2013 Israeli forces entered the Buffer Zone in the southern Gaza Strip. The forces invaded up to 100 meters on land of Khuza’a, east of KhanYunis where they flattened the agricultural land. The damaged land belongs to Faysal Odeh who stated: ”I own land consisting of five dunams that I planted with various trees and plants 282 OCHA, Between the Fence and a Hardplace: Humanitarian Impact of Israeli-imposed Restrictions Access to Land and Sea in The Gaza Strip (August 2010); available from http://www.ochaopt.org/ documents/ocha_opt_special_focus_2010_08_19_english.pdf; accessed 2 May 2013. 283 Diakonia, Within Range: An Analysis of the Legality of the Land ‘Buffer Zone’ in the Gaza Strip (2011); available from http://www.diakonia.se/documents/public/IHL/IHLanalysis/within_range_ legal_analysis_of_the_gaza_buffer_zone_on_land_Diakonia_sept2011.pdf; accessed 2 May 2013. 284 OCHA, Enhancing Agricultural Land Productivity for Vulnerable Farmers in Eastern Khan Younis and Al Shoka in Rafah of the Gaza Strip, 2009, 42; available from http://ochadms.unog.ch/quickplace/ CAP/main.nsf/0/C1256DAD0046BFC6C12575E4003675AD/$FILE/MYR_2009_Country_ OPSPROJECTS_PRINT.pdf; accessed 14 May 2013. 285 PARC-Gaza, The Agricultural Development Association: An Applied Participatory Research (Gaza, 2009), 9; available from http://gaza.parc.ps/Draft%20Applied%20participatory%20research-Feb.pdf; accessed 2 May 2013.. 286 Faysal Suleiman Hamad Odeh, ‘The Village of Khuza’a, District of Khan-Yunis’, interview by BADIL, February 2013.